Page 55 - The Mercy of Believers

53
EXEMPLARY VALUES OF BELIEVERS REFLECTING THEIR MERCY

he will certainly be pleased with the outcome in the here-
after, and that this is the best sign of one's compassion.
In the above verse, Allah informs us that the best as-
sistance a believer can offer is in promoting goodness and
piety. Again, we learn from the Qur'an what goodness is:

It is not righteousness to turn your faces to the East
or to the West. Rather, those with true righteousness
are those who believe in Allah and the Last Day, the
Angels, the Book and the Prophets, and who, despite
their love for it, give away their wealth to their rela-
tives and to orphans and the very poor, and to trav-
ellers and beggars and to set slaves free, and who
establish prayer and pay welfare tax; those who ho-
nour their contracts when they make them, and are
steadfast in poverty and illness and in battle. Those
are the people who are true. They are the people
who do their duty. (Surat al-Baqara: 177)
As is evident, true goodness plainly differs from the
sense of goodness prevalent in societies in which the val-
ues of religion do not prevail. People, who are distant
from Qur'anic morality, perceive goodness as a favour
done when one feels like it. This is an attitude occasion-
ally adopted. Often this form of goodness is limited to not
side-stepping beggars and to giving in charity, feeding
stray dogs or giving one's seat to an elderly person in a
crowded bus. However, all these favours are done only
when, they do not harm one's interests.
Contrary to this picture, however, the kind of good-
ness described in the Qur'an is the kind of morality and
worship practised right throughout one's life, and not